Michael Raymond-James

A character actor who was often cast as a villain, Michael Raymond-James impressed audiences with a breakout role on HBO's "True Blood" (2008- ) as a Southern lady-killer. The epic vampire drama, whic...
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There have been many interesting criminals that have appeared on television like the evolving Walter White (Bryan Cranston) from Breaking Bad, the complicated Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) from The Sopranos, and the fascinating Omar Little (Michael Kenneth Williams) from The Wire. But none of them are quite as smooth as The Blacklist's Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader).
1. He is able to make people disappear and start over. That's pretty valuable.
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2. He always finds a way to hold all of the cards.
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3. He is cocky, but not in a way that'll make you hate him.
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4. He never ceases to shock by how far he will go.
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5. He is surprisingly pulling the strings on many people.
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6. His delivery is great.
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7. Even when he seems like he's done for, he gets what he wants.
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8. His monologues are beautiful. You can almost picture and feel every word.
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9. He has intelligently found a way to be untouchable to the authorities.
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10. He's honest about what drives him.
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11. His signature hat is everything!
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12. His quips are very funny.
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What do you love about Raymond Reddington? Tweet us your answers using the Twitter handles below!
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HBO
With the final season of True Blood hitting television screens this summer, our heroine Sookie (Anna Paquin) will be tasked with fighting a new kind of evil: zombie-like vampires. Though we may be sad to see True Blood finally bite the dust, there have been six seasons worth of fantastic villains. We’re taking the time to appreciate some of them before the true death of HBO’s vamp show.
Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes)
Maryann’s crimes include hosting huge orgies, creating chaos, forcing humans to do her bidding, and attempting to sacrifice a magical creature. She may not be the most evil of True Blood’s villains — she also, arguably, did have some people’s interests at heart — but let’s not forget the whole sacrifice/mind control thing.
Antonia Gavilán (Paola Turbay/Fiona Shaw)
As far as the reasoning behind villainous intentions, Antonia’s may be the easiest to understand. Though she is overcome with a need for vengeance and possesses Marnie Stonebrook’s (Fiona Shaw) body in an attempt to seek revenge, can you blame her? She was tortured by vampires; given the laundry list of evil vampires we’ve seen on True Blood it’s almost understandable.
Lorena Krasiki (Mariana Klaveno)
For most of her time on True Blood, Lorena is more of a jealous ex-girlfriend than an actual villain. That’s not to say that ex-girlfriends can’t be evil, because Lorena certainly is. However, she’s not that much worse than some other vampires on True Blood, though she does help give the species a bad name.
Macklyn Warlow (Rob Kazinsky)
Warlow — or Ben, as we first knew him — was the main antagonist of the most recent season, but he had been teased for most of the show’s lifespan. Warlow was the vampire that murdered Sookie’s parents. He also tried to force Sookie to marry him, which was as creepy as it was evil. However, as far as nefarious villains, he spent most of the season (literally) tied up which wasn’t very good for his bad guy reputation.
Rene Lenier/Drew Marshall (Michael Raymond-James)
Though Rene — or should we call him Drew — was more species-ist than outright evil, his psychopathic tendencies really don’t help his case. As the first season’s big bad, the vampire and vampire-sympathist murderer made for a great mystery and thrilling season. Plus, anyone who can kill a nice old women like Adele Stackhouse must be at least 89 percent evil.
Steve and Sarah Newlin (Michael McMillian &amp; Anna Camp)
As religious fanatics, Steve and Sarah Newlin commit some cruel atrocities against vampires in the name of their god. However, even though they may have thought what they were doing was right, it wasn’t. Their delusion makes them pretty darn evil, especially Sarah’s testing facility in the sixth season.
Franklin Mott (James Frain)
Though Franklin wasn’t around for a long time, he managed betray some of our beloved characters Tara and Jessica. To make matters worse for himself, he has no redeeming qualities and many viewers were glad to see him die.
Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare)
By far the most evil vampire on True Blood, Russell has little to no regard for human life, he is a crazed lunatic who just wants to watch the world burn, and his proper Southern accent makes him all the more menacing. Plus, he comes back from being buried under massive amounts of concrete. He’s the biggest bad True Blood has seen yet.
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DreamWorks
For the bulk of every Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, moose and squirrel would engage in high concept escapades that satirized geopolitics, contemporary cinema, and the very fabrics of the human condition. With all of that to work with, there's no excuse for why the pair and their Soviet nemeses haven't gotten a decent movie adaptation. But the ingenious Mr. Peabody and his faithful boy Sherman are another story, intercut between Rocky and Bullwinkle segments to teach kids brief history lessons and toss in a nearly lethal dose of puns. Their stories and relationship were much simpler, which means that bringing their shtick to the big screen would entail a lot more invention — always risky when you're dealing with precious material.
For the most part, Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman handles the regeneration of its heroes aptly, allowing for emotionally substance in their unique father-son relationship and all the difficulties inherent therein. The story is no subtle metaphor for the difficulties surrounding gay adoption, with society decreeing that a dog, no matter how hyper-intelligent, cannot be a suitable father. The central plot has Peabody hosting a party for a disapproving child services agent and the parents of a young girl with whom 7-year-old Sherman had a schoolyard spat, all in order to prove himself a suitable dad. Of course, the WABAC comes into play when the tots take it for a spin, forcing Peabody to rush to their rescue.
Getting down to personals, we also see the left brain-heavy Peabody struggle with being father Sherman deserves. The bulk of the emotional marks are hit as we learn just how much Peabody cares for Sherman, and just how hard it has been to accept that his only family is growing up and changing.
DreamWorks
But more successful than the new is the film's handling of the old — the material that Peabody and Sherman purists will adore. They travel back in time via the WABAC Machine to Ancient Egypt, the Renaissance, and the Trojan War, and 18th Century France, explaining the cultural backdrop and historical significance of the settings and characters they happen upon, all with that irreverent (but no longer racist) flare that the old cartoons enjoyed. And oh... the puns.
Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman is a f**king treasure trove of some of the most amazingly bad puns in recent cinema. This effort alone will leave you in awe.
The film does unravel in its final act, bringing the science-fiction of time travel a little too close to the forefront and dropping the ball on a good deal of its emotional groundwork. What seemed to be substantial building blocks do not pay off in the way we might, as scholars of animated family cinema, have anticipated, leaving the movie with an unfinished feeling.
But all in all, it's a bright, compassionate, reasonably educational, and occasionally funny if not altogether worthy tribute to an old favorite. And since we don't have our own WABAC machine to return to a time of regularly scheduled Peabody and Sherman cartoons, this will do okay for now.
If nothing else, it's worth your time for the puns.
3/5
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143/ReprisePlaying yuletide songs outside of December always seems rather inappropriate. But there are several 'festive' standards that have as much right to be blared out in the blazing hot summer as in the run-up to the big day. Here are five Christmas favorites that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas at all.East 17 – "Stay Another Day"The track which pipped Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to the U.K. number one spot back in 1994, boyband East 17's signature hit has become a staple of the holiday season across Europe. But despite its use of sleigh bells and an accompanying snow-filled video, the ballad is in fact a heartfelt tribute to chief songwriter Tony Mortimer's brother, Ollie, who had committed suicide several years previously.Frankie Goes To Hollywood – "The Power Of Love"Taken to the U.K. number one spot by Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 1984 and then again by Gabrielle Aplin last year, the message of "The Power Of Love" may be in keeping with the season of goodwill ("make love your goal"). But there's not one mention of Christmas during its epic production and the track has only become synonymous with the festivities because of its nativity-themed promo.Aled Jones – "Walking In The Air"Another track which has become associated with Christmas due to its accompanying visuals, "Walking In The Air" was written by Howard Blake for the animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs' much-loved children's book The Snowman. Played during the boy and the snowman's journey to the North Pole, the soaring lullaby has perhaps inevitably since become a choirboy favorite but it still contains a distinct lack of anything Christmassy."Jingle Bells"Recorded by everyone from The Beatles to Buble, "Jingle Bells" has been a yuletide favorite for over 150 years, largely thanks to its copious amounts of snow. But snow isn’t confined to Christmas and the jaunty ditty was actually written by composer James Lord Pierpont to be sung at Thanksgiving rather than December 25th."Baby It's Cold Outside"Recently covered by the likes of She &amp; Him and Kelly Clarkson &amp; Ronnie Dunn, "Baby It's Cold Outside" has been a seasonal favorite ever since its writer, Frank Loesser, and his wife, Lynn Garland, premiered it at their housewarming party back in 1944. But again, the track has become so ingrained in the festive season because of its Arctic weather conditions rather than anything particularly Christmassy.
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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Justin Timberlake's newest movie, Runner Runner, is in theaters now, and even though it boasts big names like Ben Affleck, it's not winning over the critics or audiences. Timberlake plays Richie, a Princeston student who plays online poker to pay for his tuition and gets swindled by an online gambling boss (Affleck), who later takes Richie under his wing. Timberlake's latest inspired us to take a look back at his entire movie career, so we did just that and ranked his most notable movies from best to...not so great.
The Social Network
Not only did The Social Network win several Academy Awards, but it almost earned Timberlake an Oscar nod for best supporting actor. Now that is impressive. Timberlake's portrayal of Napster founder Sean Parker is arguably the best of his career.
Inside Llewyn Davis
You know you've made it when you're cast in a Coen brothers movie. In this one, Timberlake plays a musician and performs covers of classic folk songs live for the film.
Friends With Benefits
This movie came out around the same time as No Strings Attached, which basically had the same premise, but Timberlake's film was by far the superior of the two. He and Mila Kunis have palpable chemistry and a very natural rapport. The movie's real magic, however, lies in its postmodern mocking of the rom-com genre.
Black Snake Moan
Still starting out in his career, Timberlake played a minor role in this 2006 drama, but anytime he was on screen, his presence was overshadowed by another actor. Even when sharing the frame with little-known actor Michael Raymond-James, James clearly has more weight as an actor than the pop singer.
Alpha Dog
Though he stood out as a goofy supporting friend character, the movie is one of the most painful to watch in recent memory.
Trouble With the Curve
Not even Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams can save this snoozefest. It sort of makes you wonder if Timberlake only signed on because Eastwood's name was attached.
Bad Teacher
Cameron Diaz is hilarious as the teacher who smokes pot in front of her students and cares more about finding a rich husband than teaching, while Timberlake is the weakest link in a solid cast of comedians that also includes Jason Segel and Lucy Punch.
In Time
This wannabe sci-fi dystopia flick, about a future world that uses time as currency, looks slick, but the plot is ludicrous and poorly executed. Timberlake especially falls flat in his first major action role.
Runner Runner
It just so happens that Timberlake's latest movie is his worst. His acting in the thriller may have improved marginally — he's doing the obvious head turns and concerned face less — but the movie fails to engage the audience with the subject matter.
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After Dark Films
It seems a bit odd to take on a movie review of Courtney Solomon's Getaway, as only in the loosest terms is Getaway actually a movie. We begin without questions — other than a vague and frustrating "What the hell is going on?" — and end without answers, watching Ethan Hawke drive his car into things (and people) for the hour and a half in between. We learn very little along the way, probed to engage in the mystery of the journey. But we don't, because there's no reason to.
There's not a single reason to wonder about any of the things that happen to Hawke's former racecar driver/reformed criminal — forced to carry out a series of felonious commands by a mysterious stranger who is holding his wife hostage — because there doesn't seem to be a single ounce of thought poured into him beyond what he see. We learn, via exposition delivered by him to gun-toting computer whiz Selena Gomez, that he "did some bad things" before meeting the love of his life and deciding to put that all behind him. Then, we stop learning. We stop thinking. We start crashing into police cars and Christmas trees and power plants.
Why is Selena Gomez along for the ride? Well, the beginnings of her involvement are defensible: Hawke is carrying out his slew of vehicular crimes in a stolen car. It's her car. And she's on a rampage to get it back. But unaware of what she's getting herself into, Gomez confronts an idling Hawke with a gun, is yanked into the automobile, and forced to sit shotgun while the rest of the driver's "assignments" are carried out. But her willingness to stick by Hawke after hearing his story is ludicrous. Their immediate bickering falls closer to catty sexual tension than it does to genuine derision and fear (you know, the sort of feelings you'd have for someone who held you up or forced you into accessorizing a buffet of life-threatening crimes).
After Dark Films
The "gradual" reversal of their relationship is treated like something we should root for. But with so little meat packed into either character, the interwoven scenes of Hawke and Gomez warming up to each other and becoming a team in the quest to save the former's wife serve more than anything else as a breather from all the grotesque, impatient, deliberately unappealing scenes of city wreckage.
And as far as consolidating the mystery, the film isn't interested in that either, as evidenced by its final moments. Instead of pressing focus on the answers to whatever questions we may have, the movie's ultimate reveal is so weak, unsubstantial, and entirely disconnected to the story entirely, that it seems almost offensive to whatever semblance of a film might exist here to go out on this note. Offensive to the idea of film and story in general, as a matter of fact. But Getaway isn't concerned with these notions. Not with story, character, logic, or humanity. It just wants to show us a bunch of car crashes and explosions. So you'd think it might have at least made those look a little better.
1/5
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All right, How I Met Your Mother fans. Let's pool our comprehensive knowledge of the long running sitcom, channel our proclivity for scientific reasoning, and think: is there any way, any possibility at all, that Ted and Robin can end up together?
Now, at first glance, the question might inspire a brash "Of course not!" After all, HIMYM introduced the character to Ted's future kids as Aunt Robin, has inserted countless details about Ted's future wife that would contradict a Mosby/Scherbatsky union, and has even flat out revealed that our fair Canadian would never go on to have children. But still... maybe. Just maybe.
It's not even so much that I'd love to see Ted and Robin end up together. I just don't want to endure any more of these romantic teases without so much as a hope that the two might have a future. This week's How I Met Your Mother plants another seed in the "Will they/Won't they?" garden, skewing Robin's attentions from her self-absorbed betrothed Barney to the always-there-for-her Ted.
See, Robin spends the entire episode searching for a locket she buried in Central Park during a teenaged trip to New York with her father. Convincing herself that the piece of jewelry is branded with some cosmic significance, being the determining factor in the question of whether or not she should, indeed, marry Barney, Robin desperately claws through the dirt for hours, while a callous Barney and her equally inattentive father bond over a game of laser tag.
And while her husband to be ignores her subtle pleas for help, Ted picks up on Robin's anxiety and blows off an important business meeting to show up and lend her a hand. And a hand he gives her: a weeping Robin grasps Ted's hand, just as the rain picks up, some temperate music plays, and the credits begin to roll. While Ted tries to quell Robin's worries about the upcoming wedding, his affirmation that there are no "signs from the universe," and that you just have to trust your heart to tell you what you really want, seem to convince Robin that what she wants is, in fact, Ted.
Now, we can assume that this will only act as a segue to the realization that she and Barney might not belong together, and not an actual path toward a reomantic union with Ted. And that's what's so... frustrating. We don't need any more false promises from you, HIMYM. We don't want to be teased anymore. It's been done. The wool has been pulled over our eyes so many times that it's worn translucently thin. It's pretty much just mesh now.
So what's to gain? Having spelled out that Ted and Robin will and cannot end up together, what is the show expecting to convince us with episodes like these? Does it think we just... forget? Does it think we're stupid enough to be unable to do the math? Or does it expect us to be so naive and hopeful that we'll ponder if there is any way, despite all of the hints, that the two can actually work out.
Well, I guess you've got me there, HIMYM.
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This week's all-new episode of Once Upon a Time was a whirlwind of dark flashbacks and shocking Stroybrooke twists. The biggest twist of the episode (maybe the entire year, actually) was when fans watched Neal reveal his true feelings to Emma and then get sucked into a vortex and banished to another unknown realm. When will our couples finally get their happy endings?! Well, Hollywood.com had the pleasure of chatting with Neal himself, actor Michael Raymond-James, about this week’s heart-wrenching episode. He revealed plenty of spell-binding details of Neal's emotional journey and his hopes for the upcoming Season 2 finale.
The star says that he has known about Bae’s rich Neverland and Captian Hook back story from the very beginning, and he was thrilled for fans to finally learn the truth. “My 10-year-old-self was just doing back flips because it’s just been a blast,” Raymond-James says, adding, “I knew initially what I was getting in to it’s all been by design."
The actor says he was also intrigued to learn about fan reactions to Once Upon a Time creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’s take on “The Shadow” and visiting the Darling house. “They’re just the best at being able to take something like 'The Shadow' or Rumpelstiltskin being the crocodile and make a cohesive story out of it, while also turning it sideways and looking at it from a different perspective. It’s is one of the most astounding things that I think there is. Seeing all of these fairytale that we grew up with with fresh eyes is so much fun.”
As for that super sweet bonding moment between Neal and Emma on the beach, James teases that Neal has been waiting to say those words for many many years. “We start to scratch the surface of some of the things that have been left unsaid," he says, also noting that, "Staying with Emma was going to keep her from this destiny of breaking the curse and saving this town, which was populated with all these people that Neal knew from growing up.”
Raymond-James continues, “He sort of felt that it was important that he fall on the grenade of the greater good in order to protect that destiny — which isn’t to say that that comes without regret. Just knowing that he created a hole in her heart or a pain that she doesn’t deserve is a heavy cross for Neal to bear and that’s something that he’s never really been able to let go of.”
Now that Neal has discovered that Henry is his son, James says that he will do whatever it takes to be the absolute best father that he can — even if that means sacrificing himself into the portal to save Emma. “Neal has found something that he’s been seeking for a long time and now it’s just about becoming the father that he never had so Henry doesn’t have to know what that is like,” he explains. “I think that Neal would go to the ends of the earth to protect Henry and that’s the single-most motivating factor for everything that Neal does. He wants to be the kind of father that he never had.”
After slipping away into yet another unknown realm, Neal’s fate is left hanging in the balance and there’s only one thing to blame: magic. James explains, “I think Neal’s experiences with magic have left him with nothing but pain — he isn’t particularly fond of it.” With just one more episode left in this season and Neal’s life hanging in the balance, James says there is just one thing that he is hoping fans will get: “I’m rooting for happy endings.” We're ready for some happily ever afters, too!
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This week’s penultimate episode of Once Upon a Time took us to a brand new, yet oh-so-familiar world: Kensington Gardens in Victorian London. That’s right, fairytale fans, we’re starting to learn the truth behind what happened to Bae after Rumplestilskin abandoned him and how he stayed so young (and cute) for all these years. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke Emma and Neal learned all about Tamara’s dark side, what really happened to Greg’s father, and a shocking twist that left us with one very important question: Where did Neal go?! Read on for all the bewitching details from “Second Star to the Right.”
Fairytale Land Flashbacks: The episode picked up right where we left off with Bae back in Season 1 when his father chose magic and power over family and love. Bae found himself alone in a brand new world: Kensington Gardens in Victorian England and when we fast-forward six months we see that he’s cold, dirty, and very hungry. Bae snuck into the open window of a posh flat and after stuffing his face with as much bread as he possibly can (clearly he doesn’t know the damaging effects of carbs) he met the ultra-sweet Wendy Darling.
In fact, the entire Darling family is the epitome of kindness because they invite Bae to stay with them and be apart of their family — something that Bae has never really had. Bae soon found out that there is magic in this world but it’s a dark type of magic called “The Shadow.” Wendy and her brothers are intrigued and delighted by the shadow saying it can change into all sorts of fun shapes and can fly around but Bae warned the children not to go near it because all magic comes with a price.
Of course, Wendy doesn’t listen and she lets The Shadow whisk her away to a far off place called Neverland where there are no adults and you never grow old. Bae is devastated but just after dawn Wendy returns to the Darling house with a solemn look on her face declaring that she was in Neverland for much longer than just a night. “I guess time works differently in Neverland,” she whispered to Bae. Wendy told Bae that although Neverland had it’s perks, (mermaids, fairies, etc.) at night all of the children would cry for their parents because once you step foot on the soil, you can never leave. The Shadow only let Wendy return because he wanted a boy in her stead.
The next night, the Darling children prepared to fight off the dark creature but they are no match for The Shadow’s powers. In order to save the Darling children, Bae sacrificed himself to be The Shadow’s victim and take off flying through London as the Neverland Lord’s prisoner. Just as they were about to reach the new land, Bae wrestled free from The Shadow’s grasp and fell into the sea—only to find himself upon the Jolly Roger and looking into the smoldering guyliner-ed eyes of Captain Hook.
Storybrooke Sacrifices: The psychotic twosome — Greg and Tamara — have Regina strapped down to bed and they kept mumbling on and on about how proud the “Home Office” is going to be with all of the magical data they’ve collected. They believe that magic is “unholy” and it should never belong in this world, so they’ve snatched her three magic beans, temporarily disabled her magic, and found the trigger that could destroy all of Storybrooke. (But they don’t know the trigger can do that… yet.)
Emma was determined to find the truth behind Tamara because she has a hunch that she’s an evil, man-stealing, b**ch, and Snow is determined to find Regina because she still feels terrible for the whole killing-her-mother thing. Neal and Emma begin searching on the beach and the have a sweet heart to heart where Neal revealed how horrible he feels for letting Regina go to jail in his stead and he has thought about her everyday and wishes things had turned out differently.
Snow and Charming discovered where Regina is being held captive by using a spell that they obtaineded from Rumple. The he spell allows Snow to see through Regina’s eyes and feel everything she was feeling — which was immense pain because Greg was basically electrocuting the queen to death in order to learn what really happened to his father. As it turned out, Regina killed Greg’s father shortly after Greg’s chubby past-self left Stroybrooke and she buried him at their old campsite.
While Snow and Charming were busy letting The Blue Fairy restore Regina back to health, Emma and Neal discovered that Tamara is, in fact, a taser-wielding psycho who never ever loved Neal. Ouch, that hits you right in the gut... literally as she shot Neal in the stomach. Just as Emma was about to kill the magic-crazed fake-fiancé, Tamara threw down one of Regina’s magic beans and a portal to the unknown opens in the middle of the floor and Tamara snuck away. Emma and a very wounded Neal tried to escape the swirling green vortex, but the floor started to break and Neal hung on to Emma’s hands for dear life.
Neal worried that their son will left an orphan and he told Emma that she has to let go saying, “Henry can’t lose both of us, and grow up like we did.” (It was all a very sweet Titantic-esque moment.) The twosome exchanged “I love you’s” and Neal slipped through Emma’s grasp and fell through the portal into an unknown world while Emma is left heartbroken and devastated. Meanwhile, over with the two magic-hating loons, Tamara revealed that the “Home Office” knows what the trigger can do and they are tasked with an important and deadly new mission: “We have to blow Storybrooke off the map!” Yikes.
What did you think of "Second Star to the Right?" What realm do you think Neal ended up in? Were you surpsied to learn about The Shadow and the perils of Neverland? Cast your spell in the comments below!
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Appeared on stage in "The Petrified Forest" at the Pantheon Theater in New York

Landed a lead role on "Terriers" (FX) as Britt Pollack, a retired criminal who starts up a private investigation unit with a former police officer

Cast opposite Tom Cruise in action drama "Jack Reacher"

First TV appearance, an episode of the CBS crime drama "Hack"

Starred in Jonny Hirschbein’s award-winning short film "The Fix"

Summary

A character actor who was often cast as a villain, Michael Raymond-James impressed audiences with a breakout role on HBO's "True Blood" (2008- ) as a Southern lady-killer. The epic vampire drama, which fused gothic love stories, cinematic gore, and plenty of onscreen nudity, became an overnight cult sensation, and turned its cast into A-list superstars. Raymond-James reaped much from "True Blood's" popularity, scoring a lead role on "Terriers" (FX, 2010- ), as a retired criminal who links up with a discharged police officer (Donal Logue) to form a private investigation unit. His nuanced performance and onscreen chemistry with Logue solidified Raymond-James as a viable actor, and established him as one of Hollywood's most sought-after talents for years to come.